IT hadn't been an enjoyable festive period for Ulster but the dawn of the New Year has brought some respite.

Three defeats on the bounce at the hands of Saracens, Leinster and perhaps most embarrassing of all, Connacht, had left spirits low in Belfast but pride and a bit of confidence was restored against Glasgow, even if it was an extremely close call.

On a dreary and bitter cold Belfast afternoon, David Humphreys must have wishing those rumours of his switch to the Stormers in Cape Town had a little substance behind them. They don't, needless to say, the Ulster out-half will be playing his rugby at Ravenhill next season, presuming of course he actually intends to keep on playing for another couple of years.

Yesterday, the 32-year-old surpassed Gavin Henson's Celtic League points scoring record of 503 points with the help of a try, conversion and six penalties . . . including the last-gasp winning kick . . . but the out-half appeared a little off form, his passing, in particular, way below the standard we've become accustomed to.

That same lack of sharpness appeared to permeate the entire side throughout the game. Ulster dominated the game for long periods, and spent a lot of time in the Glasgow 22, but they didn't have the patience or guile to unlock the Scottish side's impressive defence. Mark McCall's side are going to have to be an awful lot more clinical and persistent if they're to defeat Biarritz in the Heineken Cup at the same venue on Friday night.

As for Glasgow, they still have won only once on their travels in the Celtic League since September 2004 but they played some tidy, expansive rugby yesterday and Leinster certainly won't have it all their own way when Hugh Campbell's side visit the RDS on Saturday. Indeed the visitors probably should have won this game, and they would have had they not been so indisciplined in the game's early parts. On three separate occasions in the first 18 minutes they strayed offside inside their own 22 and each time Humphreys was accurate with the boot.

That early advantage for Ulster was well deserved because they were well in control in the possession stakes at this stage. But it's points that matter in this game, nothing else, something that Glasgow proved just a couple of minutes later.

They'd hardly had their hands on the ball in the opening quarter, never mind have their hands on it in Ulster territory, but they managed to merge both tricks on the 20-minute mark as Graeme Morrison picked up a loose ball inside the home side's 22, skipped around Bryan Young and scrambled over the line despite the best efforts of Bryn Cunningham. Hardly a fuss about it. Dan Parks added the convert but Ulster still didn't learn their lesson.

They dominated possession once more for the next 10 minutes, including a period where they went from right to left deep inside the Glasgow 22, but they were guilty of over elaboration with the ball in hand at crucial times and the visitors again showed them how to do it the simple way. This time, Ulster had actually regained possession inside their own 22 but as the ball was on its way from the bottom of the ruck to the hands of Kieran Campbell, second-row Craig Hamilton nipped in to intercept and lumber his way over from ten yards. Parks added the convert and another penalty on 35 minutes and suddenly Mark McCall's side were in a spot of bother at 17-9 behind.

For the remainder of the half, Ulster again dominated but on two separate occasions, firstly Cunningham and then James Topping, failed to notice the spare man outside them. A single pass either time and Ulster would have been in. As it was, Tommy Bowe and Andrew Trimble almost manufactured an inventive try right on half-time, but the young centre was tackled high by Rory Lamont on his way to the line and Humphreys elected to kick the penalty to narrow the interval gap to five points. It proved a clever move. Six minutes after the re-start the out-half blocked down a poor Dan Parks chip and gathered the ball himself to sprint 60 yards to the line untouched. He still had enough puff in the lungs to add the conversion to put Ulster in the lead, but only just about. Long runs like that can't be healthy for a veteran like Humphreys.

From there, Parks and Humphreys exchanged penalties to leave Ulster two points in front but in injury time, there was huge drama.

First, Parks was accurate with a dubious penalty from 40 yards to seemingly steal the game for the Scots but with the last kick of the game in the 85th minute, Humphreys won the match for Ulster with a penalty from a similar distance. Lucky, but just about deserved.

ULSTER B Cuningham; T Bowe, A Trimble, K Maggs, J Topping; D Humphreys, K Campbell; B Young, R Best, S Best (c), J Harrison, R Frost, N Best, N McMillan, R Wilson Subs I Boss for Campbell, 52mins; S Ferris for McMillan, 55mins; J Fitzpatrick for Young, 70mins; R Caldwell for Frost, 82mins

GLASGOW G Staniforth; H O'Hare, G Morrison, A Henderson, R Lamont; D Parks, G Beveridge; K Tkachuk, S Lawson, E Murray, T Barker, C Hamilton, S Swindall, J Petrie (c), J Beattie Subs S Pinder for Beveridge, 56mins; L Harrison for Tkachuk, 60mins; M Roberts for O'Hara, 64mins; D Turner for Hamilton, 66mins; F Thomson for Lawson, 74mins; J Barclay for Petrie, 76mins Scorers Parks 2 cons, 2 pens; Morrison and Hamilton try each Referee P Fear (Wales)